The recipients this year include Ford Brewer, an English major from Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee; Keri Burge, a biological sciences major from Pope John Paul II Catholic High School in Huntsville, Alabama; Kyler Groner, a political science major from Morristown-Hamblen High School in Morristown, Tennessee; and Deanna Riley, a chemical engineering major from Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Katy Chiles Receives NEH Fellowship

Katy Chiles, associate professor of English and affiliate faculty of Africana Studies, received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowship for the 2018-19 academic year to support her book project, Raced Collaboration in Antebellum America. The project is the first comprehensive study of the crucial role collaboration played in early African American and Native American literatures. Chiles’s focus of study is early American literature and critical race theory – a field that includes a commitment to social justice. In her book, she will investigate the ways African American and Native American writers collaborated to speak out about the injustices they experienced.

Bell to Serve as Acting Dean of CEHHS

Sherry Mee Bell, head of the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, is now acting dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Her appointment was announced January 12 by Interim Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor John Zomchick and took effect immediately. She is stepping in for Dean Bob Rider, who is on medical leave.

Kristina Kravchenko is graduating with her bachelor’s degree at 17 years old. Records indicate she’s one of the youngest UT graduates ever, and is one of the two top graduates of the College of Animal Science and Natural Resources at UT.

Tom Winston is a 73 year old UT graduate who completed his law degree last week. He has “tried to retire at 59, 61, and 63 and failed miserably each time,” and decided to go to law school because he was “bored with retirement.”